Winterhawks clinch WHL title with win over Oil Kings

EDMONTON -- The Portland Winterhawks earned some redemption in the Western Hockey League final.

After reaching the final three years in a row, the Winterhawks finally won the Ed Chynoweth Cup with a 5-1 victory over the defending champion Edmonton Oil Kings in Game 6 on Sunday.

Last season the Winterhawks lost out to the Oil Kings in a 4-3 series decision, and the year previous to the Kootenay Ice by a 4-1 margin.

Ty Rattie's hat trick, which included a pair of short-handed goals, led Portland, with Oliver Bjorkstrand and Taylor Leier adding singles. Travis Ewanyk had the lone goal for Edmonton.

Ewanyk was credited with opening up the scoring just 1:04 into the contest, but it was a potentially disastrous own goal off Winterhawk defender Derrick Pouliot. Mac Carruth made the initial left pad save off Ewanyk's wrister, but as Pouliot picked up the rebound the puck drifted off his stick at the side of the net and straight into goal.

But Portland's penalty kill made up for it with two straight short-handed goals on the same double minor to Chase De Leo for high sticking.

Nicolas Petan forced the turnover at 4:28 off Edmonton defender Martin Gernat, then fed it out in front to a waiting Rattie who tied the game at one apiece. Then at 7:15, Rattie burst into the zone and around the net to finish a short-handed wraparound, giving Portland the 2-1 edge.

Bjorkstrand doubled the Portland lead at 3:54 of the second, his wrist shot from the right wing just squeaking under the glove arm of Edmonton netminder Laurent Brossoit.

Curtis Lazar had Edmonton's best chance of the second to pull back within one, streaking in alone halfway through the period but defied by the well-timed poke check of Carruth.

Rattie finished off the hat trick with his 20th of the playoffs at 13:25. Petan corralled a bouncing puck in the Edmonton zone and whipped it across to Rattie for the wide-open net.

With the goal, Rattie goes down in the record books tied for fourth all-time in goals over a single season's WHL playoffs, alongside Dan Spring of the 1971 Oil Kings and Doug Morrison of the 1979 Lethbridge Broncos. Petan had assists on all three of Rattie's goals.

Rattie had an opportunity in the third to add to his totals on a breakaway with four minutes to go, but was denied by Brossoit before the empty-net goal by Leier finished it off.

Carruth stopped 25 shots in net for Portland in his third straight appearance in the finals. Brossoit turned aside 20 shots for the Oil Kings.